Buy Sānguó Yōngbīng Chuánqí PC key

Sānguó Yōngbīng Chuánqí is a fantasy strategy game in which you command Zhuge Nanyang, leader of the Shu Han mercenary corps known as the White Ears. You recruit mercenaries and help Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei pursue their dream of restoring the Han dynasty through battles drawn from Liu Bei’s life, including the Defense of Xuzhou and the Battle of Changban. Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei appear in battle as reinforcements rather than as the characters you control.

Lead the White Ears

You recruit both unaffiliated and enemy officers to build your force. Some enemies, including Qu Yi’s First-Ascended Battalion and Gao Shun’s Trapped-Camp Battalion, can be persuaded to join. Battles also feature hundreds of famous Three Kingdoms officers, including some who did not meet Liu Bei in history. Conversations between your officers, reinforcements and certain enemies can trigger story events, while distinctive officers may have their own dialogue when entering battle.

Risk in battle

If Zhuge Nanyang is defeated in a campaign battle, the game ends. Other White Ears officers who fall are removed from the roster and cannot fight in later battles. Early on, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are powerful while your own force is weaker, so you may need to follow their lead and finish off weaker enemies. As the campaign progresses, your corps needs to become strong enough to fight independently; relying on the three brothers is not enough against later foes.

Enemies can drop different items, and some, such as Qu Yi’s and Gao Shun’s troops, may join your corps if persuaded. Reinforcements can defeat these enemies before you reach them, so you sometimes have to race your allies to recruit them and claim their drops.

Develop your officers

Recruitable officers have a level cap of 30. Each officer has a different class, and classes have different chances to grow in HP, strength, magic, defense and speed. For example, warrior classes tend to gain strength and defense, while strategist classes tend to gain magic and magical defense. Officers of the same class can also develop different attributes even when they reach the same level.

Weapons and equipment

Weapons and armor have durability and break after being used a set number of times. Each class can use particular weapon types, and an officer can attack only when equipped with a suitable weapon. For instance, an elite cavalry officer can use spears; if they have no spear or it breaks, they can only take hits. You need to ensure each officer entering battle has enough usable weapons, and some weapons and items grant unique active or passive skills.

Weapons fall broadly into five categories: axes, swords, spears, bows and spellbooks. Among weapons used by warriors, swords counter axes, axes counter spears, and spears counter swords. Bows and spellbooks, used by ranged units and strategists, have no clear counter relationship, but their users are relatively fragile and these weapons have low durability.

Battle shops sell basic weapons, armor and healing items. The game contains hundreds of weapons, armor pieces and items; shops do not stock the mid- and high-level equipment, which you can obtain through events, defeating enemies or recruiting them. These stronger weapons, armor and healing items can be central to your strategy and turn the course of a battle. Spirit Talismans are easy to obtain, can be bought in some locations and serve as magic-attack weapons, but each has only two uses. They can be particularly useful against powerful demon armies.

Campaign options

You can choose between Normal and Hard difficulty. After completing the game once, a new playthrough can carry over all the items collected in the previous run, making a second completion easier and allowing you to attempt tasks you could not finish before.